The Sydney Symphony Orchestra chief advocates a “selfish” approach delivering a revealing Stuart Challender talk.

David Roberston took to the Sydney Opera House stage last night to deliver the latest Stuart Challender talk provocatively titled “Why Should You Care About The Arts?” The annual lecture in honour of one of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s finest and most-missed Chief Conductors has been given by such luminaries as Stephen Hough and Edo de Waart. Following on from 2008, this was Robertson’s second Challender talk.

In just over an hour, the SSO Chief Conductor ranged widely and, as pointed out by his colleague SSO CEO Rory Jeffes, gave something of the lie to Steve Martin’s comment that talking about music is like dancing about architecture. Stating upfront his reluctance to define art, Robertson began by drawing a witty parallel with 1964’s Supreme Court attempt to clarify pornography, when Justice Potter Stewart famously said he couldn’t define it, “but I know it when I see it”.

Moving forward, on the one hand, Robertson was keen to praise the power of radio and recordings, and their influence on his own life growing up in California. “For the first time in human experience, music could be...